"Collage is the noble conquest of the irrational, the coupling of two realities, irreconcilable in appearance, upon a plane which apparently does not suit them." (Max Ernst)

Middens is an exploration game using collage and original pixel art in tandem that takes the perspective of a drifter traversing a veritable x-zone. Roving its interminable wastes the nomad chances upon a sentient revolver beside an ominous pile of remains.
The pistol offers its exploit in exchange for a pledge of inextricable companionship. Espousing to be the player's conscience the dubious weapon directs the drifter to a nearby outpost wherein the story further unfolds.

Despite its appearance as a wasteland the rift is home to many strange denizens---
some volatile and others ineffectual. Whatever their disposition the pistol represents the choice to engage them or to spare them. Aggression and passivity have their appropriate times with rewards and consequences being granted to both paths respectively.

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Stirred from trickster myths and early folk tales Where They Cremate the Roadkill is an action RPG featuring a fool on an outing to make their fortune where fortune has no foot hold. With an arrest warrant for the Devil they step out into world where even land is in conspiracy against you. To succeed they'll have to play a careful game or they'll be the next card to enter their adversary's hand.

Where They Cremate the Roadkill contains an open fully animated world with real-time combat populated by over 300 unique creatures(all of which can be destroyed by the player). Learn subversive spells that allow the player to perform occult miracles, destroy enemies, warp reality and prank the public. Bring to life an army of animate objects, turn people into flies and pigs, summon exiled spirits for conversation and cast love spells on the hapless town folk.

Back the Kickstarter HERE. We'd be extremely fortunate and sincerely grateful for your support.

The way the game handles how the end-game is triggered is interesting. Using the gun in the inventory? Utilizing the "Exuent Nomad" ability, suggesting that Nomad shot himself? Personally, I'm reminded of the FMV in Shin Megami Tensei - Persona 3 where a character shoots himself in his head to call forth his persona.

When the gun says "You play games when you're bored, right?" I mentally re-phrased it as "You're bored with this game, right? That's why you're here, at the end-game, fighting me." I dunno, I just found this sequence amazingly ironic. That the player has to choose to shoot the character in the head in order to end the game. And it's totally possible that some of that decision might be because of boredom.

author=Fuguewhen all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.

That's a great quote to describe the game. I think much of the meaning of Middens is pivoted on that point. For instance there's a conversation with the gun where it explicitly states that its life cycle is

rooted in the killing of other creatures. Making the Nomad a sort of parasitic host to the gun.

It also reminded me of the quote of how violence begets violence. Weapons create the need for more weapons.

My older brothers are obsessed with the Call of Duty franchise and in that the main goal is to shoot and kill hyper realistic imitations of humans. I appreciated that Middens purposely makes the player uncomfortable with killing at first but eventually the act becomes so routine that the player learns to ignore the pleading of their victims and just go in for "point blank".

There's some cognitive dissonance, though. You know the gun isn't trustworthy, and he's creepy besides. In order to reach the ending, you have to ignore your gut and rack up an incredible number of kills on the (mostly harmless) inhabitants of the rift. The Nomad doesn't have any motivations of his own, and so this is something the player has to decide to do. On my first playthrough, I was convinced that the win condition was simply turning off the game. I think I might still believe that.

30 nothings is a lot of nothings. it seems like it will be difficult to get that many nothings without killing anything that pleads for its life.

which incidentally i pretty much staunchly refuse to do.

" If I was placed in a game where the focal item was a paintbrush I'd also naturally assume I'm supposed to paint with it. "

exactly. when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. i was discussing this with someone watching me play the game.

'what's it about?'
'it's not about anything. you just wander around this bizarre dimension killing weird looking creatures that are basically minding their own business'
'but why do you have to kill them if they're minding their own business? i like weird looking creatures'
'well...i have this gun. and it is the only means i have of interacting with the game world'

I was able to beat the game without trying to find an ending. To me it made sense that if you're a masked man in a desert with a sinister talking gun for an ally that you're supposed to shoot creatures to progress. Actually if you walk around long enough you'll eventually have to battle monsters because a hefty portion are aggressive anyway. If I was placed in a game where the focal item was a paintbrush I'd also naturally assume I'm supposed to paint with it.

If I was Clowder though, I would probably just add a short blurb somewhere in the beginning of the game hinting at this more overtly.

You first need thirty nothings. Then, you go into the skill menu and select the gun. Then go back in and select 'exeunt nomad.' This puts you into the end-game content. I figured people were going to have trouble with this.